25 international entries for Melbourne Cup

Racing Victoria is pleased with the response from international trainers, with 25 northern hemisphere horses nominated for this year's Melbourne Cup, including defending champion Americain.

Nominations for the $6.2 million Cup on November 1 closed on Thursday, a month later than has been traditional, with a total of 163 horses entered.

Prepared in France by Alain de Royer-Dupre, Americain will be striving to join Archer, Rain Lover, Think Big and Makybe Diva as the only horses to go back-to-back after last year becoming the fourth internationally trained winner of the Cup.

There are two French entries for this year's race with trainer Mikel Delzangles, a long-time pupil of de Royer-Dupre, nominating Dunaden, a recent Group Three winner.

While one of the world's greatest trainers, Ireland's Aiden O'Brien, does not have an entry, fellow countryman and dual Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Dermot Weld has two nominated.

Racing Victoria's international recruiting officer Leigh Jordon said he was pleased with the international nominations which, as expected, have less speculative entries with the change in entry dates.

"With nominations closing a month later, the entries are more indicative of which internationals are likely to come or are genuinely interested in doing so if they perform in their homeland this month," Jordon said.

Godolphin have entered Cavalryman and Lost In The Moment, while Luca Cumani, who trained the runner-up in 2007 (Purple Moon) and 2008 (Bauer), has entered four horses including last year's seventh placegetter Manighar.